Divisions Ruth Janetta Temple (1892–1984) was an American physician who was a leader in providing free and affordable healthcare and education to underserved communities in Los Angeles, California.

Her father, a Baptist minister and graduate of Denison University, especially stressed the importance of looking beyond racial barriers and therefore made his home to be a place where people of all backgrounds could congregate.

One day the Temple's neighbors son, Ernie Fennell, fell into an oil ditch in the area and was carried away for a quarter of a mile.

[3] Temple enrolled in the College of Medical Evangelists (Loma Linda University) in 1913 and became the first African American woman to graduate from this institution.

Troy, a prominent member of the Los Angeles Forum, a black men's civic organization, arranged for the group to pay Temple's tuition.

[5] Upon graduation from Loma Linda, Temple began working to create public health services to underserved low-income communities in Los Angeles.

[2] Funding for the clinic was scarce, so she and her husband Otis Banks turned their newly purchased five-bedroom bungalow into the Temple Health Institute.

[2] The institute was a free medical clinic that discussed common community issues such as substance abuse, immunization, nutrition and sex education.

[2] Temple found it important to educate adults and children; she wanted people to be self-sufficient, so that nothing would prevent them from getting the resources they need to maintain a healthy life.

Her program gained national attention with acronyms like ABC, which stands for "Acquiring basic health knowledge, Bringing into practice what is learned, and Communicating it to contacts".